Interpersonal Communication Evaluation

On Tuesday, March 9, 1999, at 7:35 and 7:37 my twin brother and I were born at Augusta Regional Hospital. The first sound each us made was not a complex word or even a simple vowel, but instead a simple cry. As with all newborns we were not born with the innate ability to effectively communicate with the people around us. Instead, our ability to communicate developed gradually through interactions with our parents, friends, and anyone else who we interacted with. One of the most important forms of communication is interpersonal communication in which two or more people exchange messages that ultimately have a measurable effect on their emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and guide their overall personal relationship with one another (McCornack,

However, all communication is in fact goal driven with all participants trying to accomplish a certain goal. In relation to these goals, communication is said to be effective if the goals set for the communication interaction are fulfilled (Westmyer, 1998). When evaluated using the Spitzberg & Cupach assessment, effectiveness is an important part of communication and is a vital part of interpersonal communication competence. A personal evaluation of my effectiveness using the Spitzberg & Cupach assessment showed a score of 11 out of 15. One aspect of effectiveness that I struggle with, and which lead to the relatively low score in this category, is self-presentation. The goal of self-presentation is to present oneself in a certain way to other people (McCornack, 2016). When trying to project a positive social identity I often find that I downplay some of the positive aspects of my personality to better fit in with the people around me, and as a result I negatively affect my

Appropriateness in communication means following situational, relational, and cultural expectations of communication based on the context of different situations (McCornack, 2016). Completing the Spitzberg & Cupach assessment showed a score of 13 out of 15 in overall appropriateness. A score of 13 would point to a high interpersonal communication appropriateness, however, it is my belief that my appropriateness fluxgates largely based on the situation in which I find myself. For example, the first time that I dated a girl was in the ninth grade. After about two months of dating I decided that I no longer wanted to be in a relationship. So instead of talking to her face to face I decided to break up with her over text. My decision raises the question, was my use of communication appropriate for the situation? Ultimately, I think the answer is no, the relational expectation would be to break up with her face to face to give both parties a chance to express their feeling and come to an understanding. In this case, I choose to avoid the situation entirely because I did not want to experience the emotions that I would have experienced if I had broken up with her in person. This avoidance of emotion triggering situations is known as encounter avoidance and is a method of preventing unwanted emotions (McCornack, 2016). In contrast to this situation in which I showed low